Halfway Between - TVCT - 4

More of the photos of our exhibition at the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show.

As I said, I couldn't get good photos of it all, but I hope to get down to the National Needlework Archive to get good photos of the rest.

Delia Salter 'View from the Bridge'.
Deila's work at first looks like abstract marks. You read the title and suddenly you realise you are looking down into swirling water!

She says; 'From a bridge that links one side to another you are halfway between, not quite in one place or in the other. From the solidarity of a bridge to the precariousness of the water, you are halfway between the two conditions.'

Mavis Roles' work 'Seeds of Compromise' at first catches the eye with the lovely flowers. Then you begin to see what is around and you realise you are looking at No Man's Land. You think red=poppies and then you catch the clever statement Mavis makes by choosing to use an Honesty Plant instead.

Very thought provoking.

Sheila Dunscombe - 'Mediaeval Grids' inspired by mediaeval paving tiles and the backward text found on some because they were cut by illiterate workers who didn't know which way letters faced.

Several of the rest are linked to thoughts of the times between night and day.

Frances Self - 'Dusk, Darkness and Dawn' An interesting triptych.
Frances says; 'This piece was inspired by images and experiences dealing with a long stay in hospital with a critical illness. Dusk is the uncertainty of diagnosis. Darkness represents an endless stay in ICU. Dawn is the realisation of a future.'

She shared with us that at times, the view of a tree from her window was the only thing to give her hope. You can't tell from this photo, but the centre black portion has the main part of the tree quilted into it. You can see the branches spreading to either side.

Kate Findlay -'Pink Dawn' - inspired by thoughts about Dawn and Dusk, those rather mysterious states in between day and night. As I mentioned before, this piece has fibre optics included.

Kate says; 'Adding lines of light, which change colour slowly, gives a wonderful atmospheric effect in a room with low-level lighting, and it is very soothing to watch.'

Vivian Grant's work was a similar theme. 'Dawn', inspired by thoughts of a night going through the transitional stages towards daylight, with dawn coming
halfway between night and the expectation of what the day will bring.

While Gill Knight's - 'Sunset into Night', inspired by images from contemporary art from the Middle East, focusses on the other end of the day.

Also on one of the outside walls -
The large piece is one of Kate Findlay's pieces from her Hadron Collider series.

We had thought we would have a much smaller space and that another stand would be joined onto ours. So, when we found we had the outside back wall to fill as well, we called on Kate!
But the space was just right for hanging Ruth Archer's piece 'Between the Two Moons' with Kate's. The two 'spoke to each other' in a visual and thematic sense.

And finally, you may recognise the Cloud Puppy. I actually made him for this Halfway Between Challenge, but when our deadline was postponed, I took the opportunity to submit it to Festival of Quilts last year.

This is the statement I included. 'My piece is halfway between imagination and reality. Inspired by an Oriental creature. To me he looked like a puppy made
of clouds. I thought he would be great depicted playing in the wispy atmosphere of an imaginary planet. This is one of my series of ‘Fire Creatures’, making imaginary beings reality.

To see all the works in person, visit the National Needlework Archive in Newbury (Greenham Common). They are on exhibition from 19th March – 30th April. Check the website for opening times. I think it is only open on weekdays, with the only Saturday opening being the 5th April.

These posts about Halfway Between have been added to Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's. If you have come from there, continue to scroll down and see more of the work in our exhibition.

Halfway Between - TVCT - 3

A few more photos of the TVCT exhibition at Knitting and Stitching last week.

The first exhibition we did had quite a few 3D items to display on plinths. This time there weren't so many. Here are a few of the small ones.

This book 'Lost' is by Ros Crouch.

We chose to display it in a star shape, but it would also work to have the pages together showing the layers which work together to illustrate the feeling of being lost.
The text on the pages are lines from Dante’s Inferno which describe being lost at the middle of his life in a dark wood.

I wasn't able to get a close up of the other work (had jobs to do!) But here is a photo showing them in the centre of the room.

Besides Ros' book, to the right is Annie Hamilton's book 'Halfway Between Reality and Fantasy'. She enhanced her sketches of a wood near her home. Annie says 'By looking very closely at small areas of the ground, I could make out leaves, twigs, plant and small dark spaces that seemed to form odd creatures.'

and in the front is Clare William's 'Imaginarium' which she describes as a travelling theatre with the quote ‘An imaginarium is a place to go for your imagination – to let it flower, let it grow, let it take you places.’

These small pieces on the plinths were near to the centre of the room, but worked well visually with the 3 pieces behind them. The work seen on the wall in the photo above were inspired by various aspects of water and used shibori fabrics and natural dyeing techniques.
From left to right:
Margaret Ramsay - 'Fleet Mudflats' part of a seascape series exploring rhythm and referencing the transitional intertidal zones of the Fleet. She also blended inkjet images of indigo shibori fabrics and photos of sand ripples, then altered them to look like the genuine article.

Cathy Park - 'Sky, Sea, Shore' Cathy had fabric she had dyed with indigo and potassium permanganate. To her, they were 'halfway between what I wanted and what I liked.' I think that together they work well to be just right!

Marion Robertson - 'Rock Pools at Nairn'. Marion chose a part of the beach where there are rock pools because of the happy memories of playing there as a child, and also of her children playing there. She says, 'For me the rock pools are neither land nor sea but sometimes they are both.'

Marion has been giving valuable help with the admin side of the exhibition. She also spent a great deal of time putting together inspiration packs which we were able to sell to help cover exhibition costs.

And finally for 3D work.
I didn't get a photo of Dorothy Crossley's piece 'Cannock Chase' on its own. It was wonderfully textured and when it was hung away from the wall the shadows behind added even more to the depth which was already in the work. Dorothy's inspiration for her woven tapestry came from her walks on Cannock Chase. She says, 'The viewer is encouraged to enter the environment and look to see what is between the trees.'
You can see Dorothy's piece on the wall in this photo.

The work in front of Dorothy's piece was made by Jane Glennie.

Jane submitted two very different pieces. One very large and one very small.
Jane used a scaled up knitting process with recycled video tapes to create her large piece, 'Two Trunks'. The two textured, thin, iridescent black structures were influenced by the trunks of pines in Swinley Forest, Berkshire after the recent forest fire. She asks, 'Are the trunks living or dead? They are somewhere halfway between. If dead themselves, they are supporting visible life in the form of moss and lichen.'

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the small one. It was rather fragile, so she waited to the beginning of the opening day to take the little porcelain pieces out of their wrappings. As I said, at that point, I totally forgot to take any more photos.

A few more photos tomorrow.

Halfway Between - TVCT - 2

The Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles group are very privileged to have a large number of artist who do innovative work to a high standard. One of these is Kate Crossley.

The Exhibition - Halfway Between - has 3 of her pieces in it. Kate submitted two pieces, but having seen a piece she had submitted to Festival of Quilts last year, I asked if she would also add that to the exhibition.

Book at Bedtime was displayed directly outside of the opening.* This was a great place because it was so interesting it drew a lot of the people in to see more.

163 x 115cm

It is something that requires standing there for moments at a time to take it all in. Amazing.

Inside we had 2 of Kate's pieces which were formed by embedding stitch and found objects into resin. With the lighting provided by the K+S organisers, the work glowed.

Many people were drawn straight to the piece In the Beginning there was Void.

And after coming out of their reverie looked around and headed to this work Chrysalis.

The technique requires a lot of patience and perseverance to execute. This Chrysalis was the 3rd because the resin process went wrong with the first one, then the second one, being finished, laid on a table. Then it rolled off and broke! I think the persistence paid off.

You can find out more about Kate Crossley by visiting her website.

All of the work has been taken to the National Needlework Archive in Newbury (Greenham Common) today to be exhibited from 19th March – 30th April. It would be worth your while to go and see these pieces more closely. Check the website for opening times. I think it is only open on weekdays, with the only Saturday opening being the 5th April. I will post more of the K+S exhibition photos tomorrow.


*I must say Thank You to Margaret Ramsay who did a stellar job with the main curating task of arranging placement of the work for K+S. Jane Glennie made a mock up of the gallery (photo here on Margaret Cooter's blog - we never thought to take a photo of it so I am glad Margaret Cooter came by when we were setting up) and with Margaret's arrangement, we could get right on with the work with only a few adjustments.

Halfway Between - TVCT

Hurrah the internet is fixed!

A few photos from last week. I only managed to get one of the setting up. My main job was cutting battens for hanging the work.
Here is a view of one of the outside walls. Labels were added later.

We had the whole area inside and all the outside walls as well! So, it meant we were able to use all the work submitted.

This is Jane painting some paper tape to cover the cord for Kate Findlay's piece 'Pink Dawn' which uses Fibre Optics.

This was another section requiring paint.

Merete Hawkins piece 'Kraka' showed up so much better with a grey wall behind it. The inspiration for her piece was the tale from Norse Mythology.

The story of Kraka is from Norse Mythology.

The Viking King Regnar set her a riddle.

‘Come back in the morning unclothed, but not naked,

unaccompanied but not alone,

unfed but not fasting.’

When Kraka appeared at sunrise, her long hair was combed out.

She was draped in a fishing net.

Her dog was with her and she had bitten into an onion.

As promised, King Regnar married her

and they lived happily for many years.

I will show some of the other work in the next few days. The exhibition seemed to be well received. It looks like we might be getting a few new members as well!

Contemporary Quilt also had an exhibition of work there. They wanted to get a wide range of work showing what could be done. When I sent 2 photos for Amanda to choose from, she decided that as they were quite different, she would have both.

So, here is 'Menina de Favela e Água'.

The piece hanging next to her was also watery using shibori. They worked well together. But I was talking with someone at the time and didn't remember to read whose work it was, so I haven't included it here.

and also 'Endless Possibilities' which had its own space.